The discovery of stable polar water ice deposits on Mercury has significant implications for astrobiology, as these deposits are believed to have been formed over time by comets and asteroids. The ice exists in micro-environments with temperatures ranging from 550 to 50 kelvin and is located near rich organic chemicals, suggesting the presence of essential building blocks for life. While NASA officials did not claim to have found life, their enthusiasm during the press conference indicated the potential for "unusual phenomena" in these crater regions. The idea of life evolving in the water pools around the ice was humorously proposed, highlighting the fascination with the implications of this discovery. This finding opens up exciting possibilities for future exploration and research on Mercury.
Just think, life evolves in the water pools around the ice sheet. First single cell animals, then fish, then lungfish, then a little dinasaur that crawls out of the water, crawls out of the crater, and is vaporized *poof*. Interesting twist on natural selection...
#5
Dotini
Gold Member
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I was watching the live video feed from the NASA press conference, and took the following notes:
- stable polar water ice deposits
- deposited over a long term by comets and asteroids
- redistributing into crater micro-environments which range from 550 to 50 kelvin
- in close proximity to rich organic chemicals
- all the building blocks of life
- images are expected of "unusual phenomena" in the vicinity of these craters
Although the NASA folks specifically denied they were reporting anything like finding life, they were grinning from ear to ear over their splendid results.
Partial solar eclipse from Twizel, South Isl., New Zealand ...
almost missed it due to cloud, didnt see max at 0710 NZST as it went back into cloud.
20250922, 0701NZST
Canon 6D II 70-200mm @200mm,
F4, 100th sec, 1600ISO
Makeshift solar filter made out of solar eclipse sunglasses
This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it less beautiful to me (n.b. the posts must of course comply with the PF guidelines, i.e. regarding science, only mainstream science is allowed, fringe/pseudoscience is not allowed).
n.b. I start this...
Asteroid, Data - 1.2% risk of an impact on December 22, 2032. The estimated diameter is 55 m and an impact would likely release an energy of 8 megatons of TNT equivalent, although these numbers have a large uncertainty - it could also be 1 or 100 megatons.
Currently the object has level 3 on the Torino scale, the second-highest ever (after Apophis) and only the third object to exceed level 1. Most likely it will miss, and if it hits then most likely it'll hit an ocean and be harmless, but...